Merry Christmas, pt. 2

Well, we did it—we made it to Oregon and back. When it is all said and done we had a brilliant time though we were able to see far too few people.

Leaving Denver

When you last left us we were stuck in Denver due to the Blizzard of ‘06 (the first half). Making it out of Denver turned out to be just as much of an adventure as getting stuck.

We knew that the lines would be enormous so we decided to head over to the airport when we checked out. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 5:30ish and we left the hotel at 10:00. The ride to DIA was entirely unlike the ride away from it. The roads had been opened back up (thought there were some lanes still covered in snow) and traffic was able to move at a pretty normal pace.

The lines at the airport were another story all together. We waited about 2 1/2 hours in the outside check-in line because the line inside was much worse. I think for only the second time my lips were actually blue because of the cold (if you can’t guess the first time you need to go back and read the first half of our Christmas adventure).

Once we were checked in we needed to wait in the security line which was, without exaggeration, the longest line I have ever been in. It literally wrapped 3/4 of the way around the inside of DIA. Thankfully, it moved quite quickly and so we were through in about an hour. We had made it through all of the lines and now we just had to wait for our flight to depart.

What was scheduled to be a three hour layover on Wednesday morning turned into a four day layover, getting us into Oregon late Saturday night.

Christmas with the Dykasts

Following church Sunday morning we headed off to Paul and Mitzi’s for Christmas with the Dykasts. The whole clan was able to make it and we were joined by one of Mitzi’s sisters, Barbara, and Jade, one of Mitzi’s nieces.

It was fantastic to see Sophie and Olivia again—it’s amazing to see how quickly both of them have grown. They both had a great time and were very patient as they waited for the presents to be opened.

After leaving Paul and Mitzi’s we headed back to my parent’s place in order to hang out with just the immediate family. After all of the fuss it took to get to Oregon spending time with family was just the ticket. Family is a generous gift from God.

Christmas with the Yoders

While the Dykasts have kind of taken to celebrating together on Christmas Eve, the Yoders get together on Christmas morning and make a day of it.

If we thought Sophie and Olivia had grown Jake and Max had them beat. These two boys were so fun to be around. Max is a real go-getter with tons of energy but he’s a cuddler too. Jake says the funniest things and is such a good kid. When he opened the present from Warren and Sheri, a Veggie Tales boat, he burst out, “Oh, no! That’s the right present! That sure is the right present!” With his arms flapping in excitement he had us all laughing.

Splitsville

We split our time between both sets of our parents. For the first half of our stay in Oregon we bedded down at the Dykast’s; the second half was spent at the Yoder’s.

Because our time was shortened by the blizzard we had to trim down our visitation list to a bear minimum. We were able to see the Rodgers and a few others but on the whole most our time was spent with our families.

Blessed

Looking back on our trip I can see just how blessed we are by our family and friends, including the ones in Tennessee. As the departure day drew near we were ready to be back at home in Tennesse but not ready to leave the people in Oregon.

God has blessed us and it is because He has saved us through the birth, life, death and resurrection of His Son that we can fully enjoy the relationships He has allowed us to have. Because we’re complete in Him we can simply enjoy our family and friends rather than looking to them to satisfy us.

As with everyday of the year Christmas enables us to realize that God truly has blessed us beyond measure. It is favor that we have not earned, it is grace. May you experience the same type of overwhelming grace for yourself.